S.  S.  No.  5 


MISSIONS  IN  THE 
SUNDAY-SCHOOL 


Two  Experiments  with 
the  Lenten  Offering 


BOARD  OF  MISSIONS 
281  FOURTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YORK 


PAY  YOUR  OWN 
APPROPRIATIONS! 


SOME  time  before  Lent,  in  St. 
Paul’s  Church  School,  Jeffer¬ 
sonville,  diocese  of  Indian¬ 
apolis,  one  of  the  teachers 
came  to  the  rector  with  the  sugges¬ 
tion  that  a  chart  of  some  kind  be  used 
this  year  to  record  the  offering  of  the 
school  from  week  to  week,  as  it  was 
gathered  for  the  mission  work  of  the 
Church.  As  a  result  of  this  sugges¬ 
tion  the  following  scheme  was  evolved 
which  worked  so  beautifully  that  the 
rector  is  desirous  of  passing  the  idea 
along  for  use  by  others  next  Lent. 

In  determining  upon  a  plan  the  rec¬ 
tor  felt  that  something  more  than  the 
mere  recording  of  the  offering  was 
necessary  in  order  that  any  real  good 
might  be  accomplished;  the  mission 
of  the  Church  must  be  emphasized. 
Therefore  he  decided  to  introduce  the 
children  to  the  wide  scope  of  our  mis¬ 
sion,  and  put  them  into  some  closer 
touch  with  the  mission  fields.  He 
drew  a  large  map  (shown  in  the  ilr 
lustration)  making  the  United 
States  large  enough  for  its  depart¬ 
ment  or  provinces  to  be  conspicuous; 


other  fields  were  sketched  in  so  far 
as  possible  in  their  relative  positions, 
to  the  extent  of  the  space  available. 
This  space  was  one  by  three  yards. 
The  provinces  were  then  numbered 
and  the  various  fields  named.  After 
this  the  amount  of  money  that  the 
school  was  to  attempt  to  raise  was 
fixed — at  a  higher  figure  than  any 
amount  ever  raised  before,  except  one 
year,  when  the  school  was  much 
larger — and  this  amount  was  “appro¬ 
priated”  for  the  various  fields  upon 
the  basis  on  which  th-e  funds  of  the 
Board  are  appropriated.  This  in¬ 
volves  much  mathematical  computa¬ 
tion  from  the  actual  figures  of  the  . 
Board  given  in  the  report,  reducing 
the  million  and  more  to  $50,  which 
was  the  amount  decided  on,  and  the 
appropriation  to  the  various  fields  to 
the  proper  percentage  of  the  total. 
But  it  is  worth  while  for  the  man  who 
does  it,  besides  being  useful  for  the 
end  in  view.  These  amounts  were 
then  “written  in”  in  the  fields  to 
which  each  amount  was  “appropri¬ 
ated,”  and  we  started  in  to  “pay  our 
own  appropriations.” 

Of  course,  we  paid  the  expenses  of 
the  Board  of  Missions  first,  else  we 
would  have  no  one  to  see  that  this 
side  of  the  Church’s  work  was  done, 
because  we  ourselves  cannot  attend  to 
it.  Then,  with  the  picture  of  the 
Church  Missions  House  pasted  over 


material  New  York,  we  began  send¬ 
ing  out  the  money  as  fast  as  it  came 
in  to  carry  on  the  work  of  evangeliz¬ 
ing  the  world  wherever  we  had  sent 
missionaries  to  represent  us.  The 
field  made  no  difference ;  wherever 
there  was  a  need  and  we  had  the 
money,  there  the  money  went,  and 
away  went  a  “line’^  of  cheer  and  good 
courage  from  the  Board  to  the  work¬ 
ers  :  “Go  on ;  we’re  with  you.” 

At  the  end  of  two  weeks  we  saw 
that  at  the  rate  we  were  going  there 
would  be  a  “deficit,”  and  some  field 
would  be  left  without  its  appropria¬ 
tion.  What  should  we  do?  Give  up 
in  despair?  No,  indeed!  we  could  not 
desert  the  work  and  our  workers  in 
that  fashion.  Redouble  our  efforts! 
that  is  the  way  to  solve  that  problem. 
And  so  we  did.  With  zeal  the  school 
planned  and  worked  during  the  next 
two  weeks  and  soon  we  saw  the  end — 
if  we  were  faithful  to  the  end.  Palm 
Sunday  saw  all  but  a  little  over  six 
dollars  raised  and  sent  on  its  way  to 
bring  the  knowledge  of  God  to  those 
who  need  it  as  we  need  it.  But  what 
of  the  six  dollars?  Were  we  to  sit 
•back  and  take  it  easy  because  we  had 
so  little  to  do  to  take  care  of  the 
work  that  was  already  being  done? 
No!  else  the  world  would  never  be 
won.  There  was  new  work  and  larger 
work  waiting  only  the  money  to  en¬ 
able  it  to  be  done.  No!  Let  us  see 


aHe  Dov  AMD  cree  orr 

I  cJoV^rww^  c]orv(e>s 

j'lve- 

o\<^  eoo3  U9'p^ee 
eet 

[\oe  j  )R.5t  Suwde^y 
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cGCMte  tl^e  Oj|epawg 

u)d.^  ^7^00  It  R.&pixe'- 
SGnfe^  by'  tl^e  sbout  bidcb 
bfNie  above  Jolgho/sij^’s 
t:oigl')t  sboo\beix.. 

He  IS  Noc/O  42  yeesRe  o\d, 
s\x  jeet  gvos 

^100  foPL 

3b^  I^t  ojjeR.\K(g 

PLGpaesewteb  by  tlge 
long  \iK(e  bt  tbe  mgbt, 
wd.s  ^175,000 
I|  JolgrNwy 
b^  grLOWM 
evs  yojbt  as5  tbe 
oj|ePLirvg  ,  V)^ 
wovjlc)  cn/ocx>  be 

75  peer  HIGH)  I 


how  much  we  can  raise  for  new  work, 
over  and  above  our  regular  appropria¬ 
tions,  that  the  work  may  go  forward. 
And  so  with  a  will  we  went  towards 
Easter  when,  at  the  school  service, 
$48.61  was  presented,  with  twenty- 
four  mite  boxes  to  be  heard  from. 
These  raised  the  total  to  $62.02. 

For  next  year  we  have  already 
planned  to  increase  our  appropria¬ 
tions  “because  the  work  must  nec¬ 
essarily  grow,”  and  in  addition  to  this 
we  hope  to  have  “visiting  mission¬ 
aries”  or  “native  Christians,”  or  per¬ 
haps  “heathens”  to  tell  us  something 
of  the  needs  of  the  fields  and  of  the 
work  that  is  being  done,  so  that  we 
may  have  a  more  intelligent  idea  of 
conditions  and  needs  that  must  be 
met.  A  “Board  of  Missions”  will  also 
probably  be  duly  organized. 

On  the  Sunday  after  Easter  there 
was  much  enthusiasm  when  it  was 
found  that  we  had  so  far  surpassed 
our  expectations.  And  the  rector  was 
careful  to  explain  that  such  a  chart 
could  be  made  by  every  parish  and 
mission  in  the  world,  because  all  were 
doing  the  same  thing  which  we  had 
been  doing,  and  that  the  little  Esqui¬ 
maux,  the  little  Chinese,  the  little 
Filipino  would  be  saying,  “Yes, 
we’ll  send  70  cents  of  this  $50  to  the 
fifth  province  (and  a  lot  of  it  comes 
to  the  diocese  of  Indianapolis)  to  help 


spread  the  knowledge  of  God  among 
the  Americans !” 

It  might  be  mentioned  that  there 
was  a  little  juggling  of  figures,  partly 
in  order  that  some  money  might  be 
sent  to  the  first  province,  because  the 
government  does  not  provide  for  sums 
under  one  cent;  and  partly  that  frac¬ 
tions  might  be  evened  up  and  the  sum 
total  made  exactly  $50 ;  but  the  appro¬ 
priations  correspond  in  general  to  the 
appropriations  of  the  Board  of  Mis¬ 
sions. 


There  is  very  much  to  commend 
the  above  plan  to  the  interest  and 
attention  of  Sunday  School 
teachers.  With  necessary  modifi¬ 
cations  it  could  be  used  in  almost 
any  school.  It  presents  large  edu¬ 
cational  opportunities  in  familiar¬ 
izing  the  children  with  the  method 
and  scope  of  the  Church’s  mission 
work. 

The  second  plan,  set  forth 
in  the  following  pages,  while  it  has 
not  the  educational  features  of  the 
former  one,  is  unique  and  effective 
from  the  point  of  view  of  promo¬ 
tion. 


HOW  WE  RAISED  THE 
THOUSAND  DOLLARS 

X 

‘  ^  T  OVE  never  asks  how  much 
I  micst  I  do,  but  how  much 
J  j  can  I  do?”  This  was  a 
good  slogan  to  help  in¬ 
spire  over  five  hundred  pupils,  teach¬ 
ers,  assistants  and  officers  of  Calvary 
Church  Sunday  School,  Pittsburgh,  in 
their  endeavor  to  double  their  pre¬ 
vious  year’s  Lenten  Mite  Box  Offering 
for  Foreign  Missions. 

Yes,  it  did  appear  impossible  as 
Ash  Wednesday  drew  near.  Wise 
teachers  and  clever  treasurers  had 
large  hopes  and  a  practical  plan  ready 
for  the  campaign.  Perhaps  some  were 
fearful  regarding  the  attempt,  yet 
this  was  offset  by  the  extra  enthusi¬ 
asm  of  others.  Will  the  pupils  take 
readily  to  the  plan  and  endeavor  to 
work  it  out?  Can  we,  once  and  for 
all  time,  give  a  real  answer  to  the  al¬ 
most  eternal  question,  asked  mainly 
by  the  Primary  and  Junior  Depart¬ 
ments,  “For  what  are  our  pennies 
used,  and  where  do  they  go?” 

During  the  school  year  our  Mission¬ 
ary  Education  Committee  of  teachers 
had  set  aside  five  Missionary  Sundays 


occurring  at  the  end  of  each  school 
term:  one  in  November  (diocesan), 
one  in  December  (domestic),  one  in 
February  (foreign),  one  in  April 
(local  and  parish),  and  a  review  of 
the  whole  missionary  field  in  June. 
This  scheme  meant  that  Sunday,  Feb¬ 
ruary  22,  our  foreign  missionary  Sun¬ 
day,  would  give  us  a  splendid  begin¬ 
ning  before  Ash  Wednesday,  Febru¬ 
ary  25.  We  had  seven  weeks  with 
six  Sundays  before  Easter  Day.  We 
had  also  six  countries  which  contained 
our  nine  American  foreign  mission¬ 
ary  districts:  Cuba,  Mexico,  Brazil, 
Africa,  Japan  and  China.  Splendid! 
We  shall  take  the  school  on  a  foreign 
missionary  tour  visiting  the  six  dif¬ 
ferent  countries  on  the  six  respective 
Sundays  so  that  on  Easter  Day  we 
shall  arrive  back  in  the  United  States. 
Each  department  of  the  school  can  go 
on  its  own  steamship,  and  for  each 
ship  our  mite-box  money  shall  be  the 
imaginary  coal;  this  will  enable  us  to 
work  the  apportionment  plan  as  a 
matter  of  education  for  the  pupils. 
Is  not  our  Diocese  apportioned  a  cer¬ 
tain  sum  by  the  Board  of  Missions  in 
New  York,  and  our  Parish  by  our 
Diocesan  Missionary  Board?  Why 
should  we  not  carry  out  the  same  plan 
for  the  school,  and  thoroughly  under¬ 
stand  how  splendidly  organized  is  our 
Board  of  Missions?  Let  us  follow 
their  good  example. 


The  treasurers  sharpened  their  pen¬ 
cils  and  their  wits,  and  setting-  to 
work  on  last  year’s  offerings,  by  de¬ 
partments,  found  the  proportion  that 
each  department  gave  of  the  total 
amount;  then  turning  to  our  goal — 
$1,000 — they  worked  out  the  same 
proportion.  For  example,  we  asked 
the  beginners’  department  (3-6  years 
of  age)  to  raise  $42.00  worth  of  coal 
for  its  steamer,  which  meant  for 
seven  weeks’  trip  $6.00  a  week;  the 
primary  department  (6-8  years)  had 
to  raise  $112.00,  or  seven  times 
$16.00;  the  junior  department  (9-11 
years),  $182.00,  or  seven  times 
$26.00;  the  main  department  (12-16 
years),  $217.00,  or  seven  times 
$31.00;  the  Bible  class  department  (16 
years  and  over),  $336.00,  or  seven 
times  $48.00;  the  Men’s  Bible  class, 
$49.00,  or  seven  times  $7.00;  the  Offi¬ 
cers  and  Teachers,  $63.00,  seven  times 
$9.00. 

We  made  a  large  picture  chart  for 
each  department  of  the  school,  three 
feet  six  inches  by  two  feet  six  inches, 
showing  the  seven  island  names:  the 
United  States,  Cuba,  Mexico,  Brazil, 
Africa,  Japan  and  China.  Between 
each  “island”  we  marked  the  amount 
per  week  to  be  raised,  then  cutting 
out  and  modeling  a  cardboard  steam¬ 
ship  we  placed,  with  the  aid  of  brass 
paper  fasteners,  each  ship  at  the 
United  States  island  all  ready  to  start. 


To  be  sure  our  geographical  imagina¬ 
tion  had  to  be  very  strong,  but  -we 
made  it  stretch  for  the  occasion.  One 
big  picture-chart,  similar  to  the  de¬ 
partment  picture,  and  showing  the 
movement  of  the  school  as  a  whole, 
was  placed  in  the  vestibule  of  the 
parish  house  where  all  could  see  it. 
This  ship  needed  $143.00  a  week  for 
seven  weeks  to  round  out  the  $1,000 
trip. 

Each  scholar  was  requested  to  re¬ 
port  to  his  teacher  the  total  amount 
in  his  mite-box  each  Sunday,  and  in 
turn  the  teacher  reported  to  the  treas¬ 
urer  or  his  assistants.  No  amounts 
by  scholar  or  class  were  made  public. 

On  Sunday,  March  1,  our  fleet  of 
department  steamships  moved  off 
from  the  United  States  toward  Cuba, 
and  when  the  returns  were  handed  in 
we  found  that  we  had  enough  coal  to 
take  the  whole  school  to  that  first  mis¬ 
sionary  district.  This  was  repeated 
every  Sunday  during  Lent,  the  boat 
moving  from  island  to  island. 

To  further  visualize  the  whole 
scheme  we  placed  on  the  walls  of  each 
Department  Room  a  set  of  22  x  28 
white  cardboard  signs  covering  the 
entire  foreign  mission  field.  An  ex¬ 
ample  is  as  follows: 


(Diocese)  TOKYO. 
(Country)  JAPAN. 
(Bishop)  McKIM. 


Over  each  motto  we  placed  the  na¬ 
tional  flag  of  the  particular  country, 
with  the  Stars  and  Stripes.  We  are 
sure  that  every  scholar  knows  each 
foreign  missionary  district,  the  coun¬ 
try  in  which  it  is  situated  and  the 
name  of  the  bishop. 

Other  mottos  read  as  follows: 


WHAT  IS  FOREIGN  MISSION¬ 
ARY  WORK? 

The  founding  and  carrying  on  of 
Churches, 

Sunday  Schools, 

Day  Schools, 

Colleges, 

Hospitals, 

Dispensaries, 

Orphanages. 


WHO  ARE  THE  WORKERS? 
American  and  Native: 

Clergymen, 

Laymen, 

Teachers, 

Doctors, 

Nurses. 


WHO  SUPPORT  THEM? 

WE  DO! 

Through  the  gifts  of  the  Men, 
Women  and  Children  of  our  Church 
working  through: 

Parish  Societies, 

The  Woman’s  Auxiliary, 

The  Junior  Auxiliary 

AND 

THE  LENTEN  MITE  BOX  OF¬ 
FERINGS  OF  THE  SUNDAY 

SCHOOLS.  _ 


No  prizes  were  offered  to  the  pupils 
obtaining  the  largest  amounts,  or  the 
class  or  department  obtaining  the 
highest  sum.  We  used  to  very  good 
advantage  the  Lenten  Number  of  the 
Spirit  of  Missions.  We  announced 
each  Sunday  some  of  the  methods  that 
individuals  were  using  in  earning 
their  “coal  money.”  Some  of  the 
methods  meant  hard  work,  as  the  fol¬ 
lowing  extract  from  our  rector  s  ser¬ 
mon  on  March  29th,  regarding  foreign 
missions,  will  show :  “Last  week  I  had 
occasion  to  send  out  6,000  letters  to 
the  clergy  of  the  Church,  and  all  the 
work  of  directing  the  envelopes  and 
folding  the  letters  was  done  by  four 
young  men  from  the  Sunday  School. 
I  paid  them  $20,  which  is  what  I 
would  have  paid  elsewhere  ^  for  the 
work,  and  this  is  part  of  their  gift  to 
missions.  I  doubt  if  anyone  in  the 


parish  will  give  as  much  proportion¬ 
ally  as  these  boys.”  The  class  in 
question  raised  $71.00. 

Our  spirits  rose  and  fell  during 
those  seven  weeks.  One  Sunday  would 
find  us  ahead  of  our  schedule,  another 
week  our  engines  would  have  to  slow 
down  to  “three-quarter  speed”  and 
sometimes  “half-speed.”  Some  of  the 
members  of  the  Font  Roll  wanted  to 
take  the  trip  with  us,  and  they  were 
made  welcome.  Even  a  cat  and  a  dog 
in  the  parish  brought  in  $5.00  and 
$2.35  worth  of  coal,  and  dared  to  cross 
the  ocean  to  the  islands  of  the  sea. 
We  welcomed  our  own  rector  on  board 
the  officers’  and  teachers’  ship,  but  he 
did  not  pay  his  coal  bill  until  we 
landed  him  back,  safe  and  sound,  in 
the  United  States  on  Easter  morn¬ 
ing.  His  contribution,  however,  was 
very  welcome.  We  had  an  unnamed 
and  unknown  passenger  on  board  one 
of  the  steamers.  This  individual,  al¬ 
though  not  a  member  of  the  school, 
insisted  on  coming  with  us,  and  while 
the  purser  could  not  charge  this  per¬ 
son  with  passage  money,  yet  the  mys¬ 
terious  traveler  insisted  on  paying  a 
proper  share  of  “coal  money.” 

So  Easter  Day  drew  near.  “Land 
Hp!”  was  shouted  at  9.30  a.  m. 
Should  we  have  enough  fuel  to  make 
the  dock?  The  associate  rector  (cap¬ 
tain)  was  on  the  bridge,  and  the  first 
and  second  officers  (department  su- 


perintendents)  were  at  his  side.  From 
below  the  engineer  (treasurer)  sig¬ 
nalled  the  captain  through  the  speak¬ 
ing  tube,  “We  need  $56.00  more.” 
“Go  half  speed  until  4  p.  m.”  (the 
Easter  festival  of  the  Sunday  School), 
came  the  response  from  the  bridge. 
Another  signal  from  the  engineer  be¬ 
low:  “We  had  forgotten  the  begin¬ 
ners'  department  ship’s  reserve,  with 
$53.00  worth  of  coal.”  Closely  fol¬ 
lowed  an  excited,  hoarse  cry  from  the 
first  mate  of  the  Mens’  Bible  Class: 
“We  have  scraped  from  the  bunkers 
$3.00  worth  of  green-backed  nuggets; 
may  we  put  the  engines  over  at  full 
speed  ahead?”  “Yes,”  came  the  re¬ 
sponse  from  the  captain. 

Promptly  at  4  o’clock,  with  colors 
flying,  the  stars  and  stripes  on  the 
stern  sheets,  and  the  Chinese  flag  at 
the  forepeak,  the  seven  battleships  of 
the  Calvary  Division  of  the  Lenten 
Mite  Box  Fleet  warped  alongside  the 
dock.  The  commodore  of  the  fleet 
signaled  to  each  captain : 

“STAND  BY  UNTIL  LENT,  1915.” 


This  pamphlet  may  he  obtained  from  the  Literature  De¬ 
partment,  Board  of  Missions,  28!  Fourth  Avenue, 
New  York.  Ask  for  S.  S.  No.  5. 


I  ED.  6-14  10  M.  F. 


